Law firm Temple Bright continues expansion and unveils Infectious film

Innovative Bristol law firm Temple Bright is continuing its expansion with the addition of two more City lawyers to its team in London. The firm now has a total of 24 partners, eight of them based in the London office.

Its partners have worked in a range of leading City firms including Freshfields, Herbert Smith Freehills, Linklaters, Simmons & Simmons, SJ Berwin, Slaughter and May and Travers Smith.

The firm, established in Bristol in 2010, has become a local success story and opened its London office in Rivington Street in the heart of the capital’s vibrant Tech City area, with two lawyers last year.

The latest hires coincide with the firm partnering with Bristol digital studio Infectious to produce a 90 second animation on its homepage. The film depicts Temple Bright’s unusual structure and approach, using City imagery to reflect the market in which the firm is now competing.

Both new partners are former SJ Berwin lawyers. Technology partner David Meredith was a partner and head of outsourcing at the City firm, where his experience included leading the team advising SITA on the restructuring of its multi-billion-pound strategic partnership with the France Telecom group. Meredith subsequently joined the executive team at RPC.

He said: “As a lawyer who has worked in a broad range of traditional and not-so-traditional structures, I’m excited to be joining Temple Bright. The firm’s chambers model is undoubtedly a preferable value proposition for clients – indeed perhaps the stand-out option for complex work types.

“Clients seeking support provided personally by the most experienced lawyers can no longer rely on the traditionally geared firms, whose model disincentivises hands-on, senior fee-earning. By contrast Temple Bright’s structure gives those clients exactly what they want. It’s compelling.”

Corporate partner Nadim Zaman spent over a decade in the award-winning corporate and private equity team at SJ Berwin (prior to its merger with King & Wood Mallesons) before joining DLA to bolster its international corporate team and Tech City offering. Zaman has a particular focus on the TMT sectors and has been recognised in the Legal 500 for his corporate and private equity work.

He said: “Temple Bright is an innovative firm in the evolving legal services landscape. For me, it provides an ideal platform to service new and existing clients, supported by a high quality team of lawyers from a City background. The business model resonates with lawyers and directly benefits clients. Gone are the days of traditional, open-ended fee arrangements on corporate deals and we are all the better for it.”

Zaman will continue to develop the firm’s M&A and private equity & venture capital offering in this sector while Meredith’s focus will be on developing its commercial practice with larger technology services and outsourcing clients across the UK and beyond.

Having eschewed the pyramid structure, the firm’s founders have been careful to retain what they see as the best aspects of the traditional approach.

Co-founder Tim Summers said: “Temple Bright’s priority has always been to maintain a proper balance between innovation and traditional virtues. While we consider the City model to be disproportionate for some kinds of work and client, we aim to emulate the best City firms in our culture and standards. We think this is why we are attracting lawyers of the calibre of Nadim and David, both of whom we are delighted to welcome to the team.”

This article appeared in the Bristol Business Newsletter on 6 June 2014.